Superstar Bailey Smith, who is off contract at season’s end, is inching closer to a switch to an AFL powerhouse.
Superstar Bailey Smith, who is off contract at season’s end, is inching closer to a switch to an AFL powerhouse.
Out-of-contract Bulldog Bailey Smith is considered an “85 per cent chance” of picking Geelong over Hawthorn as the gun midfielder weighs up his future.
Smith recently returned from Europe as he prepares to make a call on where he’ll be playing next year after his 2024 season was wiped out due to an ACL injury.
The Cats are well placed to lure Smith, according to the Herald Sun.
Geelong is on track to build a new $60 million, state of the art training facility next to GMHBA Stadium, including an indoor kicking field and events space, having already had $14 million in donations to help with it.
It comes after recent frustrations over Geelong receiving $4 million for a new scoreboard from the state government in a May budget.
Geelong, Hawthorn and Collingwood have all been in the race for Smith, who’s had a two-year extension on the table from the Dogs from earlier this year.
And footy reporter Jon Ralph believes all signs point to the 23-year-old joining the Cattery for 2025 given how much the club can offer including both it and Smith being sponsored by Cotton on.
“It just makes me think again Geelong is such a destination club,” Herald Sun journalist Ralph said of Geelong’s training facility upgrade plans on Fox Footy’s Midweek Tackle
“In the next eight or 10 weeks, Bailey Smith will be doing tours (of rival clubs) … and you’d think a tour of Geelong. It’s just such an amazing precinct they have down there and they’ll show him those plans.
“Show him if you want to live in Barwon Heads like Joel Selwood or Pacington Street, you can do all those things.
